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Sharing Christmas V

Despite a flurry of Christmas creations, one seed of an idea lay dormant for a long time before finally sprouting into possibility. Last year, I had begun what I hoped would become a yearly tradition of me giving a special festive ornament to a close friend's new baby for Christmas. With little time to make things last Christmas, I found the most whimsical and slightly ridiculous ornament that I thought a little girl could love. However, with more time on my hands this year and with sparks of creativity firing daily from the tips of my fingers I decided it would be better to make her a festive ornament myself.

Being an Australian in her first white Christmas in Canada, I figured, what could be more appropriately-themed than to send home a Christmas moose? A lovely idea, I hear you say, but oh the procrastination and angst that went into working out how to bring this sheer brilliance to life! Luckily three things helped me in the end. Firstly, a wild google search that turned up a prototype to aspire to. Secondly, a wild flickr search turned up thousands of moose images for lifelike inspiration. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, the courage to dust off my grade 12 drawing skills to make an approximation of a moose shape to draft my pattern. Armed with courage and inspiration, how could I go wrong?

I love him. It's as simple as that. He was made from recycled and felted sweaters (a ribbed rust-coloured one for the body, and a blue and orange striped one for the antlers) and finished with silver thread edges on the antlers and a small bell for the tail (for festivity's sake). The legs are the seams from the sweater's arms, which is a stroke of moose-leg representational genius, if I do say so myself.